*EDIT*
If you're a new player or don't have time to watch your computer (anything short of 24/7 it seems) I strongly recommend NOT trading, period, for now. Due to changes currently being tested it's simply not a good idea to experiment, nor would I want you to stress out over attempting to "make sense" of the current form of the economy. Details can be found mostly in the "Developers Discussion" forum section if you choose to research the matter.

As far as a course of action for now, I strongly suggest setting hunts for your queues if you don't have anywhere specific to go. This will allow you to continue your game (with minimal effort!) without watching excessively or risking excessive amounts of money.
Make sure you don't have missions active, and hunt at generally any "safe" looking island (most any starter-available island, lighter than grey on the danger map). Since the computer will handle your combats while you're away as long as they aren't too hard, there's little risk in setting hunts like this, so go ahead and set your queue to max length, filled with hunts of max duration. Your game will continue to collect Flight Points, Combat Points, and money while you're away, and there will be little to no risk, though you will of course be unable to gain Trade Points while not trading.

Below is my info on the old econ system, I won't edit anything until I feel a more permanent system is in place.
*EDIT*

I know the organization isn't best, but I'll try to work on that! Please skim the bold text for sections you're interested in, if nothing else.

How trading works-
In Skyrates each island you can visit has a certain level of goods at any given time; note that this level is affected by occasional changes that make skylands consume or produce more goods of a set type, and also as other players buy and sell these goods. That also means that every player buying/selling affects the price, slightly, for everyone else, at least temporarily, and how many units you buy yourself affects the price too. When a skyland is in low stock for a good, for any reason, that skyland is willing to pay a high price to get it! Find a nearby island with low cost goods of that type, and bring 'em over!

Good levels-
Skylands have a certain color indicating their relative level of goods; skylands can be Red (in dire need), Yellow (in need), Green (content), Blue (overstocked), or Purple (too much ) on any one good at a given time, and are usually in high stock for some items, while in demand of others. These good levels are exponential in price-meaning the difference in price between purple/blue is MUCH less than between yellow/red. Your ideal colors for trading are obviously purple to red, but remember even green to red can make significant profit. The best routes are between two skylands that each produce a good the other needs-for instance, one skyland that has purple food but red wood, and one that has purple wood and red food!

Setting routes-
As noted, the best route you can get is purple to red, both way between two islands. This doesn't occur often, so you have to know when a route is better than another. Typically the low end (red/yellow) of a route is the more important factor-remember for any one good, trading green to red is more profitable than trading from purple to green.

When you find a decent trade route, be sure to note nearby islands' need for goods-sometimes the island you're selling your goods at has a high stock for another commodity that a nearby island wants-try to take advantage of this, so long as nothing puts you significantly off your main route.

Other things to note-

Being shot down in combat means pirates steal some of your goods! Don't worry, they won't steal money directly, or send you back to a different island, but losing in combat can sour a trade. Be careful, and remember if you can't win, you can always flee (attempt to put all pirates off the radar) or bribe to make the pirates go away; bribing does not affect your profit, but if you've already started the battle, it can get very pricey.

The only thing that affects your "profit" count is the amount you spend and receive on goods. Paying for fuel and bullets, or buying new guns or planes does not impact your profit level. Similarly, gaining money in combat is ignored by the profit counter.

Trade routes die! Since the game's economy is dynamic, a trade you set up for great money on Wensday might be an awful trade by Friday! Check in every so often to make sure the colors you're buying/selling from have not changed significantly. More than once a day typically isn't needed on lower level goods, the ones you start with.

II:QueuesComing soon! III:Starter Frustrations!

*I tried the best route I saw, and I still lost money!

Unfortunately due to some problems in the game's economy (that are being addressed) the starter area may not always have good-or even viable-trade routes for newbies. If this happens, don't panic, and don't continue to make runs that you know won't make money. If there is litterally no route that will make you money, consider making several hunts at a skyland overnight-your Autoresolver (AR) will fight the battles for you, getting you money, flight points, and maybe even combat points as you're away. If you really wanted to trade it's not ideal, but sometimes there's nothing else you can do. If you aren't confidant that your AR will be okay overnight, consider setting up long, lazy routes around the start islands for a night. The most important thing is to not get upset, stop playing manually, and set up your game so your player gets some benefit out of the day. Any fights the AR discovers overnight should more than pay for the fuel your player uses, so you can relax, ignore the game for a bit, and come back the next day, and see if any routes have opened up.

*I'm stuck in the starter islands!
If you find yourself restricted and there's no routes, consider fighting some manual combats/patrols at a skyland to earn money, and use the hunting tip above. You should have enough money for a plane upgrade within no time. With the more money and Flight Points just from hunting, you can buy a Nomad or other plane, and upgrade your Flight License to allow you to go to new places with new routes!

*I just started and my profit is negative!

Your profit decreases every time you buy goods-at the start of the game, your first few purchases will probably set you back to negative profit; don't worry, as long as your sale makes money you'll still have more than you started with.

*Should I buy some of one good and some of another to trade?

Unless you're testing prices for selling to check out a route, there's typically no reason to bring more than one good with you on one side of a route. Just take a load full of whatever good you get the most money out of on that flight leg.
There is a certain later game situation where you might be running past an island low on luxury goods, want want to bring some of each, because you can only sell so many of each good, but 99% of the time this isn't the case.

*Can you help point me to a route?

Due to the ever-changing nature of Skyrates' economy, there's really no sure route suggestions I can offer, though if you PM me, or ask in this thread or on the radio I can take a look for you-don't be afraid to ask on the radio if other people see a better route. Most people aren't greedy, and realize one player has little effect on a given route, even if they're running it, so everyone's friendly .

*My question isn't on here!
If you have a problem you think others might want answered, or just want help with yourself, please post your question in this topic

IV:Planes

There are a few nuances to which plane makes a better trader and when, but basically the Trader plane of a given teir trades circles around everything else-to the point that currently each trader in a given teir trades better than ALL non-trade planes of the next higher teir. Trade planes tend to be a bit slower, and a bit more awkward in combat, but have significantly higher cargo and range.
As an alternative to trading craft, Performance planes make decent traders and capable fighters, but will still make significantly less money from trading relative to Trade planes. Performance craft are more recommended for people that don't care for how traders handle in combat and/or the slower speeds they have, or generally for people that have more available time at the computer. Generally speaking a performance craft owner will have to check the game more than once a day, whereas a trade plane will easily fly for a full 24 hours without needing a checkup to add more flight legs.

Combat planes are the worst traders-due to a combination of low cargo hold and poor range-in addition, their speed doesn't even start to make up for their lower cargo holds, unlike most performance craft. Trading is still possible, however.
Upgrade and Stock planes aren't quite what they will be, so as-is they're basically place holders-to decide if one's right for you, you'll have to review the specific stats. Just keep in mind that in the current system the Upgrade/Stock planes all still have significantly lower trading ability than the trade plane.

Certain planes have complications due to low speed and/or high cargo-these will be covered in the "Large Holds" section. If you don't feel you can take the significantly or extremely lower speeds certain craft offer, consider the Stock of Performance craft of the same teir, but remember that your trade plane is better by the numbers at trading than all non-traders in the next teir, so skipping a teir is entirely possible. Tier 5 and Tier 7 are Zeppelins, which are very very slow, even relative to other trade craft. Both have slightly ahead of the curve overall trading ability, but their lower speed can cause a lot of problems, including making the game less fun if you watch it a lot .
The Baracuda is the Tier 5 Trader, and has a tolerable speed, and very nice range and trading capacity-The Leviathan is the Tier 7 trader, and has extremely good range for its tier, the highest cargo capacity in the game, but is also the slowest craft in the entire game.

Don't forget Zeppelins get turret mounts! This means your guns swivel to track oncoming planes. It's a bit of a novelty, but fun to try at least one plane with them. The Tier 9 trader also has a turret, but doesn't suffer from particularly low speed.

V:Crew

What crew should you get, and when?

A good first plane to get crew in is Tier 3 or higher, but trade planes can hold crew as early as Tier 1.
The first crew you get for ANY play type is usually the Navigator-Navigators reduce time on flights, and allow you do plot safe (less combats) or risky (more combats) flight legs. The flight time reduction is invaluable for all planes, and safe flights can help you if you don't trust your Autoresolve to win too many fights, and want to ensure your cargo makes it to its destination. Navigators are rare in the starting area, but are much more common in areas that require a higher Flight License. Due to this, and the fact that navigators level the slowest of crew (All crew gain levels through certain ways, navigators through Flight Points), if you see a navigator in the starting area and have the money and crew seat, you should probably pick them up, in case you don't see another for a few days.

The second crew you should get is the obvious bread and butter of a trader's crew-the, er, Trader! Traders reduce taxes on goods for both buying and selling (at a rate of 1.6% of tax per level) and help get a bit more money out of combats as well. You can hire up to two traders at a time, and each will help at the same time, based on their level. Traders gain experience as you get Trade Points, and generally gain experience reasonably fast. Keep in mind Traders give double the tax cut to Steel and Paper.

As spare crew members, Mechanics always help, as they repair armor mid flight, and get you more gun mods, but they don't directly help you gain more profit. More important if you intend to fight more.
Diplomats are next to useless unless you intend to run missions-their description states that they help reduce cargo loss from pirates, but the chance that they do is low, and they save very few crates. Similarly, the Smuggling skill has a very minor effect, and should not be depended on. Mechanics and Diplomats are similar to traders, in that you can hire up to two and they will both work.

VI:Skills

Wondering what do do with those trade points you get (or will get, hopefully )?
Your first Trade Point (TP, gained once every $3500 of profit) should be immediately spent on tools-the first license introduces an essential, low tax, low risk good that will help you trade almost anywhere.

Beyond the first TP, you'll want to start raising Creative Storage (CS) and Cutthroat Business (CB) as your primary skills-these help when trading ALL goods, and present a direct increase of profit on any sucessful sale. CS is the most important, and typically should be raised first if alternative skills are at the same cost, and CB as the second skill. Tax Evasion (TE) is a good skill to have, but less useful than CB (since tax is a % of the cost, and buy costs are typically much lower than sell costs, buy tax cuts are always more significant) and the Flight Point cost makes it very costly. A few levels in it are worth it, but be careful in going beyond 2 or 3 levels.

Trade license is important, but some goods are less useful at lower teirs of planes. I'll go over this in my Goods section.

Most other tax skills focus on specific goods, and thus should be picked up if you trade in that good (or plan too) and the TP cost is less than a level in CB/CS/ect. Negotiation lowers trade time on queues, and is more helpful for performance craft than trader planes-the first level is worth it after you have quite a bit of TP, but it's not a must-have skill. Trade prestige is similar, in that it is less necessary; Trade Prestige adds more missions to the bar menu, which tend to pay lots of money, but this money is not considered profit. Trade Prestige is also a prerequisite for Luxury Schmuxury, which cuts the costs of the most expensive goods in the game-if you trade in these goods, the first couple levels of Trade Prestige are worth it simply for the tax cut.

Flight point skills-gained by time spent flying, certain FP skills can aid you in trade (or combat). Certain skills are very important for traders, the first being the Flight License. The Flight License generally opens up more of the game for you, also allowing more trading opportunities. It's recommended you get at least to level 6 in the Flight License, though the last two levels bring access to islands VERY far away, which may be less useful.

Fuel efficiency helps you go a bit farther than you used to, helping you go farther in one trip-this is helpful, but note that it currently does not seem to actually cut the cost of fuel for going a given distance, so don't buy it assuming you'll save money on fuel.

Cartography can be your most valued skill in the game, or a complete waste of points depending on how you play-more levels in this allow you to set longer queues; if you can already set a queue long enough that you will be able to check up on your plane before it ends, you don't need more cartography, but on the other hand if you don't check the game often, this might be the first skill you want to max. It's upper levels have a relatively low cost.

Perception is a mixed gift-it helps reduce service times (when not at your computer, your player takes a default 8 minutes per stop to fuel) by one minute per level, and also helps you find more pirates when hunting. While a nessecary skill for hunters, even if you don't hunt the first few levels of this skill help your character make the most of the time you spend away from the game, and the first levels are cheap. Depending on how fast your plane is (and how often it lands and needs fuel) this skill becomes even more important. Think of it as saving one minute per leg you have set to determine if the benefit is worth it.

Most other FP skills are related to combat, but in general I recommend 1 level in every skill, since the first level is always both the cheapest, and the most useful. Apply similar logic to your trade and combat skills; the first level of everything will help a bit, and then use your points to focus on what helps you in particular.

VII:Goods

Starter Goods: Wood, Food, Fish, Paper, and Ore are the goods you start off with-with only one Trade Point (after you get your first $3500 of profit) you can purchase tools, which I consider a starter good, due to their low taxes, low cost, and relatively high number of potential routes. These goods are your bread and butter, and are all you can trade in your first few planes. Each of these goods has taxes of about 10%, and are the only goods that can make a profit selling from yellow to red at the beginning-note that this may not always be the case, so be careful if you're depending on a yellow-red.
Remember, any one good can make a profit selling yellow to red, but you have to be certain the cost per unit of the yellow (the whole load, not just the first crate!) is significantly lower than the red cost per unit you can sell at. For most non-starter goods that simply isn't possible without tax cuts, so don't even worry about it until you have Trader crew mates, and significant skills.

Since higher base cost means higher potential profit, assuming you have a route for any given starter good, Tools and Ore are considerably superior to most other goods. Note that Paper receives a double tax cut from traders-this makes it a much better resource after you have a trader.

Intermediate Goods: For the lack of a better term, I consider Oil, Steel and Grog "Intermediate" goods, as they take a significant amount of TP to unlock, and require decent tax cuts or a significantly better route to be profitable. These goods are costly, which means high potential earnings, but the taxes make a significant jump from the Starter Goods, and each step up has a further tax hike. You can expect a good 20% tax for Oil up to what seems to be 30% or higher for grog. Routes for these goods tend to be longer, and without proper tax skills it's easy to get burned. Unless you have a very good route, it might be best to be wary of these goods. Selling purple to red is always profitable however, so don't be scared if you notice a decent purple/blue to red sale.

Steel is similar to Paper-it gets double tax cuts from traders, so most people find it more beneficial to trade than Grog (which is a higher Trade License) at the very start, so note this in your routes, and in your tax cut/Trade License skill purchases. The trade off is that no specific skill cuts the price of Paper or Steel further.

Luxury Goods: Catnip, Diamonds, and Unobtainium are Luxury goods, though Catnip is borderline between Intermediate and Luxury. These goods should be traded very carefully! Base costs, taxes, instability and distance between good routes are all very high relative to earlier goods. Taxes seem to be about 40% for catnip to what appears to be over 50% for Unobtainium. Without traders at least level 4+ and decent Cutthroat and related specific tax cuts (Black Market and Luxury Schmuxury) I wouldn't even consider these goods. Finding routes for a given good can be hard, or there simply may be no significant routes for any particular good-and I mean on the entire map.

Luxury goods of course have the highest base cost-and therefore best potential profit-but you also have to be much more careful. A skyland's inventory of Lux goods is typically very "shallow," meaning that relatively few units can change the price significantly-anything over 100 units of these goods will easily turn yellow, green, or blue into a lower or higher color in one purchase/sale, meaning a significant price change. Deep reds and abundant purples minimize this effect, and thus should be your targets-don't even try to sell Lux goods to yellow, unless you made a bad buy and can't unload them anywhere else.

It may seem discouraging at first, but Luxury goods will easily net you over a million in a day if you can do it right-the trick is you need a decent route (speed and/or cargo hold permitting), good tax skills, and patience to do so.

Performance planes have a slight advantage in that they can take a quick load of green to red Lux goods, so these may be more useful earlier to Performance traders. Your small cargo hold is a plus when buying short green to red sales, remember anything over 100 (or even less than 100) can tip the price of luxury goods significantly.

Likewise, Heavy, slow trade craft like the Baracuda, Leviathan, or even Bismark should be very very weary of dealing in Lux goods. See the Large Cargo Holds section.

VIII:Large Cargo Holds

Trading in planes with larger holds (which I consider to be anything over 300 crates) is a bit different from trading with much smaller amounts, and needs to be taken a bit more carefully. The economy in Skyrates is dynamic, so every good you buy and sell changes the price of the commodity, even mid-transaction. For small holds this change is mostly insignificant, but in larger holds it can make a large difference-as an extreme example, in my Kingfisher I can sell 473 Unobtanium for over 1.5 Million G if I sell in batches, or if I sell immediately, I can make under 500 thousand G.

Most goods have a certain threshold of units that makes a significant difference in buying/selling price-for starter goods it's typically over 500 (quite safe), around 200/300 for intermediate goods (which can get risky), and for luxury goods it's as low as 100, or even lower.

Selling goods with a large hold should be done in batches-batch selling involves selling a small portion of your load in segments, waiting a certain time between sales-this is because skylands consume goods at certain rates, and you want to only sell after the skyland is ready to pay a good price before selling another set. Since it's a video game, the time is short, and you can usually sell a batch every 8+ minutes. To split a load in half, an easy way to go is sell half the units, then queue a service at the skyland, then sell the last half. If your cargo size and goods require more than one split (common in Leviathans or most zeppelins) you have to approch it a bit differently. You should still sell each batch in the same safe amount, but then split each sale by a queued action-typically selling 1 good or buying 1 very cheap item will add enough time to sell another batch. This process should be repeated until you have sold the whole load in the safe quantities-being sure to sell off any of the cheap goods you purchased as filler. This takes more time, but the difference in profit is always worth it.

This can also be done in person, simply by watching the good's price, and selling a certain amount eat time the price dips-if the price goes low enough, you can sell a certain amount at a fixed max price. Try to sell as many units at that price as possible, and then wait to sell the next batch. This method is effective, but annoying and time consuming-I strongly recommend against selling batches personally unless you happen to be there to sell anyway, or if you're selling luxury goods.

Buying goods can usually be done safely at purple with a large cargo hold, but should be taken very seriously at lower colors, and higher cost items. Another extreme example, when purchasing diamonds at green in my Kingfisher, I accidentally bought a skyland from green to deep red, with a cargo of 473. Most goods are less prone to price swings than diamonds, but at the same time, a cargo hold of over 300 can easily change a buy of green into a buy of half green, half yellow, and this should be factored into your decisions. Typically any starting goods can be bought in bulk at green safely, intermediate goods can be bought to about 300~ units relatively safely, and luxuries should never be bought over 300 at green.

Diamonds and Unobtainium should always be treated as if you had a large cargo hold. Never buy a massive quantity at green, do not buy at yellow, and always sell in batches of at most 100 at a time.

IX:Advanced Trading Information/Techniques Coming soon

X:"Common Knowledge" that is wrong

1: Blimps kill trade routes.
False. With certain goods blimps can cause a small (intermediate goods) to large (luxury goods) increase or decrease in price when selling or buying an entire hold. However, "producing" purple islands have such high stocks (thousands) that a blimp's cargo hold is nothing. Short-term a blimp's sale might turn a "red" consuming skyland yellow or even green, but if that skyland is actually consuming, things will be normal in 10 minutes to a half hour. As far as long-term effects go, blimps are no different from anything, and appear to have no long-term effect to speak of(like every other plane).

2:Luxuries are extremely unstable, and aren't worth bothering with.
False. Honestly, Luxury goods are the most predictable goods I deal with. Long-term, producing/consuming islands tend to last as long as any other good...actually longer from what I've seen. It is true that short-term price changes happen (splitting your sales helps insure against this). It is also true that a non-consuming/producing island that's "red" or "blue" isn't red/blue anymore when you get there-but remember, that's not a "route." if an island is blue or yellow, odds are the supply is a fluke, and any purchases/sales you make will not be compensated for. This is why we focus on trading from producing to consuming skylands.

3:Long-term trade queues are dangerous, you should only trade when you can babysit.
FALSE! The reason I'm not #2 or maybe even #1 in profits right now is because I set short queues trying to play as I go, then forget the game for hours and it does nothing. As long as you're setting a "safe," IE producing to consuming, trade route, you can safely assume it's going to last the day, if not the week. It is much more important to have a constant queue, and check in once in a while to make sure the trade is still good, than it is to babysit and squeeze every penny out of a few sales...then lose massive amounts of profit due to all the time your skyrate wasted because they didn't trade AFK.

--------------------
Help me make this guide better!

Still a WIP, but please add comments, suggestions or questions!

I also need, for an upcomming section, information on capped prices for lower cost goods-if you know the cap sell price for sure of: Wood, Food, Fish, Paper, Ore, Oil, Steel or Grog, please PM me with the info, or post it in the tread! Make sure it's the capped price (IE you can sell one or dozens of units at the exact same price), and let me know!

nice work on this! it gives some great advice but I have never really hade to be carefull for lux goods if you have trade insurance on.

Trade insurance only stops red buys, though, there's plenty of room to lose money, or make generally less than a normal route. Plus, more vocal people on the radio tend to only follow the big purple-red lux routes, there's a very large margin for error that's not present in most other goods.

King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

There are four kinds of crew members you can pick up: Trader, Mechanic, Diplomat, NavigatorPlanes can have different quantities of crew members, crew will join you on a new plane if there is room. If there is not, you will have to drop crew members until it matches the plane you wish to acquire.

Crew members gain experience as you do things that they can be involved in.

You will choose crew members based upon what kind of improvements you would like in your play.

What do each of those do?

A good place to get the skinny on crew is at Crew, or Crew/Deconstructing Crew.

Trader: helps increase your profits by reduces the taxes you pay to buy or sell goods

Mechanic: helps avoid cargo theft on combat loss, and provide longer survival during long combat runs by occasionally repairing an armor during flight. Also helps increase combat income from bounties.

Diplomat: helps avoid cargo theft on combat loss by hiding goods, also provides increases in both money and influence gains from missions, and reduces the costs of bribes if you wish to bribe out combats.

Navigator: helps increase your speed between skylands with two new flight options: risky and safe. Flying risky will greatly increase the number of combats you will encounter on a flight (great for combat or combat income) while flying safe will greatly reduce the number of combats you will encounter on a flight (great for low combat traders, or dangerous unattended queue routes.)

Navigators are universally useful, and are often suggested as an early crew member, although any of these can be useful for you.

Allow me to repeat the key phrase for you, Cheddarius.

Quote:

Navigators are universally useful, and are often suggested as an early crew member, although any of these can be useful for you.

For crew:
Navi should probably be a top priority for almost everybody. The ability to fly faster is almost universally useful. Add to this the ability to fight more or less combats on a flight and you've got the number one crew.

Traders are likely the next best crew as they aid in money-making for both combat and trade. You should probably have at least one of these as early as possible, though they become less useful once you reach T9 (unless you're trying for the fortune board or fortune dailies).

Mechanics are useful if you have long flights. If your flights are less than an hour, you probably won't have as much use for them, as at max, you only get one armor every 15 minutes. If you're flying for 4-5 hours on a leg, that extra armor is invaluable. The boost to gunmod drop frequency is okay, but until there is a decent filter, not that necessary.

Finally, Diplos. Their bribe reduction is pretty useless in my opinion (as I have yet to bribe in my several thousand combats). Diplos are really only important if you plan to run influence. Once you reach T9, when most people really get going on influence, it is probably a good idea to get at least one of these. Two maxed out diplos will be giving you an extra 40% influence, which can be huge.

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